Machiavelli had some cold tricks for people who wanted to be demagogues and wanted to take over the world.

Once in a while, when I'm out on the lawn, I'll jump around and do a couple of things. Here's a secret: The older you get, the more difficult it gets. The smallest little injury stays with you for so long. But that's how it goes, and it doesn't stop me. I'm always ready to do something that hurts a little!

In a way, we tried to make 'The Salvation' a contemporary film with contemporary emotions. At the same time, in the script, you get a feel that all the small talk is not a part of our universe. It's more precise talk.

I've never been a big fan of making telepathy to the audience. That would be too much a wink in the eye. That would make people around me fools, right?

II know a little about Greek mythology. It's not that far away from the Nordic mythology.

Actors are a race.

I'm a big fan of film for one reason: because it is visual.

I became a dancer late and an actor late.

Once you do one bad guy, usually all you get offered is bad guys.

I'm not looking for a challenge, necessarily. I'm looking to make a really great film.

I've always been extremely physical.

I choose work with the people I like to work with.

I take my work enormously seriously. When I do something, it has to feel right. Everything has to be right.

If you have to be frightening, you need some actors around you to be really frightened. And if they're not frightened, you're not so frightening anymore. In the same way, people say, 'I think you come in, and you're really sexy'. But how do you play sexy? It depends on the eyes that are looking.

Typically, I work with the script and the director for awhile before, just to make sure we're on the same page.

I'm one of the actors who really enjoys working with kids and animals, which is always a no go. There's something beautiful about it because you tend to forget yourself as an actor.

I think I've always had to pick and choose whatever I want to work on. If I'm not happy with what I'm doing, it's probably not going to end up that interesting.

I watched westerns when I was a kid, like everybody else, but I wasn't a total nerd or geek about it. I kind of fell in love with westerns heavily when I started watching Sergio Leone's westerns.

When I do outdoor scenes, I tend to find a quiet space where I can sit and carve a walking stick that can turn out to be interesting for me.

I'm not even on Facebook. I've got enough friends I never see. You know how you have a lot of friends you never call? I don't have time for new friends, and I don't want to be friends with someone only online.

I vividly remember Charles Bronson's face in 'Chino.' The western genre is screaming for a face like that.

I have the strange ability to shut things out.

I've always been interested in strange foods, coming from all different places.

The whole Fannibal thing is predominantly something that happens in a world I don't know about, which is the Internet.

I've never been specifically attached to westerns, but there are those I like - one of the best westerns I've seen is 'Unforgiven.' I think the genre has something extremely powerful that can allow them to talk about good and evil in a very straight way.

TV is obviously so different from film: because it's a never-ending process, it keeps going; you keep receiving new pages.

I did a TV show called 'Unit 1.' It wasn't a bad experience, but yes, the first season I didn't have a good time because I was coming from Nicolas Winding Refn films where the corners were sharp and radical, but now we had round corners.

England and Denmark have a sense of irony and a darker sense of humour that you don't necessarily find in Germany and Sweden.

I try not to carry any character back home because that would be extremely frustrating for my family.

There's been no real reason to move to LA. The stuff I've done for America has been done in Europe anyway. We made a decision early on that we'd find our base and not shake the children's world as much as mine.

I fancy myself at being pretty good at understanding a script and finding the weaknesses, and then making them more radical than they are. People tend to listen to me.

I always work with the tempo of the energy of the character, whether he's fast or slow, or heavy or light.

I haven't watched that much TV, to be honest. To be honest, I don't watch that many films anymore - partly because I don't have time; secondly, because I watch a lot of sports, and I love watching sports.

If people need to be informed by lines, then there's no reason why the actor is saying the line except for information for the audience; I think there's something wrong.

I was very energetic and very small. I didn't start growing until the last year of high school.

I like to stay home with my family. But travel is good in a way. It makes you redefine each other each time you see each other. Also, it helps that I think my wife is the hottest woman in the world.

Before we made films about gangsters, everything was about the royal families. They contain so much drama.

If I was doing 'The Hunt' constantly, I would get very old, very fast.

Denmark is a small place. We all know each other.

I do read some of the scripts from America and, even though the themes or subject of the film is very interesting, and some of the scenes are very interesting, there is a tendency that they have to explain everything. There will be no dilemma.

If I do my very best, then the camera and the audience will follow me, and eventually they will somehow feel like I feel. I don't have to show it to them. I don't have to speak it out loud.

Awards mean absolutely nothing if you don't get it. If you do get it, they're the best thing in the world.

I know a little about Greek mythology. It's not that far away from the Nordic mythology.

I was not into sci-fi, science fiction, at all. I was into some of the old pirate films with Burt Lancaster and stuff. I liked them.

I like 'The Three Musketeers.' I like those kind of cool things where they were having a robe and a sword.

I love working back home, but it is a small country, and we do get tired of watching each other.

It was never a plan to be an actor.

I'm very proud of 'Valhalla Rising.'

I don't necessarily prefer playing villains. I know a lot of people say they are more fun, but if the scriptwriter has done their work well, you can find something realistic in a villain and find the mistakes in a hero - it's all down to the writing.

We have no chance to comprehend what goes on there - it's so dramatic, and people are so poor. We all felt bad about being there. Filming in India felt like we were going to borrow something knowing that we were never going to give it back.